From Manual Admin to Seamless Checkout

The organisation offered five distinct membership types: Individual, Student, EarlyCareer, Retired, and Organisational. Each came with its own pricing structure, rules, anddiscount variations. Alongside these, there were 16 Special Interest Groups (SIGs), whichmembers could join for an additional fee.
SIGs weren’t fully integrated into the membership structure. Instead, they relied oncustom data fields. Staff had to manually enter end dates. Tracking renewals requiredattention and time.
There was also the challenge of organisational purchasing. If one person from auniversity or institution wanted to purchase multiple memberships for colleagues, therewas no simple way to do it in one go. Each membership had to be processed separately.Each invoice generated individually. Each payment was handled one by one.
Events had similar constraints. Registration was capped at nine people per transaction,and every attendee’s details had to be entered manually. For large organisations, thiswas frustrating and time consuming.

The introduction of the Shopping Cart feature changed everything.
Originally designed to allow an organisational representative to purchase multiplememberships in a single transaction, it evolved into something much more powerful.
Built using FormBuilder and SearchKit, the new system allows users to add items to abasket just like an online store.

Now, a representative could:

• Select multiple individuals
• Assign each the appropriate membership type
• Add SIGs where requiredInclude donations if desired
• Apply discount codes
• Generate a single invoice
• Complete one payment

What once required repeated manual processes could now be completed in a singletransaction..

At the same time, SIGs themselves were rebuilt. Rather than existing as manuallymanaged custom fields, SIGs were rebuilt as membership types in their own right.

This simple structural change had a profound effect. MJW created a new user portal forall users of IATEFL’s site, from registered only users, to organisation membershipcontacts. The portal expands its options as the contact increases their membershiplevel.

For example an individual may become the main contact of an organisation;

• They would then be able to update organisation details,
• Add new employees, remove old employees
• Purchase memberships and SIG’s for their employees.

The shopping cart also introduced automation that had never existed before.

When four or more memberships are added to the cart, the system automaticallyapplies a 20% discount. No manual checking. No calculations. No risk of inconsistency.

For the first time, bulk purchasing logic became embedded in the system itself.

The solution uses Form Builder, WordPress menu pages, Search Kit listing tables, andCiviCRM rules (CiviRules) for automation and messaging. The shopping cart itself is aSearch Kit grid with an “add to cart” action, and it includes features for entering discountcodes, viewing items, generating invoices, and processing payments via options like”Pay by email” or Stripe checkout.

The organisation previously managed five separate membership types and 16 SpecialInterest Groups (SIGs) through a largely manual and fragmented system. SIGs relied oncustom fields with manually entered end dates, renewals required close staff oversight,and organisational purchases had to be processed one membership, invoice, andpayment at a time. Event registrations were similarly restrictive, capped at nineattendees per transaction and requiring manual data entry.

The introduction of a Shopping Cart system transformed this process. Built using FormBuilder and Search Kit, it allows representatives to select multiple individuals, assignmembership types, add SIGs and donations, apply discount codes, and completeeverything through a single invoice and payment. SIGs were restructured asmembership types, improving automation and reporting, and bulk purchasing logic wasembedded into the system with automatic discounts applied when thresholds are met.The solution also removed limits on event registrations, enabling large organisations toregister entire teams in one transaction.

Overall, the new system replaced repetitive manual processes with an integrated,automated, and scalable approach to memberships and events.